Profile of one of Portugal’s forgotten greats, João Alves, known as ‘Black Gloves’ | OneFootball

João Alves wearing his distinctive black gloves – which earned him the nickname ‘Luvas Pretas’ – in action for Benfica

Black gloves on his hands, every single match. A ton of genius in his boots. A career forgotten perhaps because the nineteen seventies in Portuguese football folklore is still a period hard to dissect.

Still, João Alves was and remains one of the greatest ever footballers produced by the country. A talented midfielder who came from an illustrious football family, one of Portugal’s first successful international exports and a leader for the ages.

When Salamanca supporters were asked to name the greatest footballer ever to wear the club’s colours, there was unanimous consensus. It couldn’t be any other way. João Alves spent two years in La Liga and was even voted ahead of Johan Cruyff and Günter Netzer as the best foreigner in the league. And that was perhaps an understatement. He was the best, period. His story, though, started years before. In fact, it started before he was born.

João Alves was the grandson of Carlos Alves, the first top-class centre-back in Portuguese history. Alves senior had been a cult figure in the 1920s as he guided Carcavelinhos – who later turned into Atlético CP – to victory in the Campeonato de Portugal, the competition that preceded the Portuguese national league, against all the odds. He became a regular for the national side, one of the most capped players of his day. Curiously, he made his debut and played his last match for the Seleção both against Spain. His golden hour, though, came during the famous Olympics of 1928 in Amsterdam, where he was voted one of the best players in the event.

The origin of the black gloves

Carlos Alves, the grandfather of João Alves, playing with his famous black gloves (Image: memoriaazul.blogspot.com)

He also became popular for regularly playing with black gloves, a trait he started at half-time of a match between Carcavelinhos and Benfica. Legend has it that a female supporter gifted him the gloves before kick-off and asked him to play with them, but Alves refused. At half-time, with Benfica winning comfortably, he changed his mind, and to everyone’s surprise, Carcavelinhos made a spectacular comeback. He decided to play with them from then onwards, leaving a lasting legacy that his grandson João would honour.

João, born in 1952, two decades after his grandfather ended his playing career. He began playing for Sanjoanense, the São João da Madeira club where he spent a single season before Benfica’s scouts took notice and enticed him to travel to Lisbon to join what was then Portugal’s leading side. For three years he became one of the brightest stars of the Eagles’ youth setup, but somehow no manager was willing enough to take a gamble on him. He was loaned to Varzim in 1972, where he made his first-team debut in the second tier, aged 20, before being loaned to Montijo, who were then in the first tier.

Nurtured by the great José Pedroto

He was a key player for the team during the campaign, and José Maria Pedroto, of all managers, took notice. In 1974, as he took the job at Boavista, Pedroto made it top priority to bring the young Alves in. His grandfather had played for Académico and FC Porto and was still a revered figure in town. His impact was immediate.

João Alves was a key player in José Pedroto’s brilliant Boavista team that won two Portuguese Cups and nearly won the league (Image: gloriasdopassado.blogspot.com)

From a regular lower-table side, Pedroto turned Boavista into title contenders and back-to-back Cup winners, and Alves had everything to do with it. He almost led Boavista to beat his former side Benfica in the league, finishing runners-up just two points behind the Lisbon giants in the 1975/76 season. As Pedroto doubled up as national team manager, Alves also became a key figure for a transitional side that was saying goodbye to the likes of Eusébio and was welcoming the generation that would later play in the 1984 European Championship.

Cartoon depiction of João Alves during his Boavista days (Image: gloriasdopassado.blogspot.com)

Roaring success in Spain

In 1973, the border opened in Spain for foreign players for the first time in a decade, and clubs started to take notice of what was happening in Portuguese football. By 1976, Alves’ celebrity status was clear, and Salamanca came knocking as they established themselves as a La Liga side. They were not a fancy historical side but had a sound sporting project and offered good money for Alves that Valentim Loureiro, the Boavista president, could not refuse. He moved to Spain and levelled the side up that also included Nestor Rezza and Jorge D’Alessandro, two Argentine internationals.

Alves was a pioneer as one of the first Portuguese footballers finding success abroad (Image: gloriasdopassado.blogspot.com)

In his first season, he almost took Salamanca into Europe and was voted the best foreigner in the league. In a memorable win away at Real Madrid, Alves netted the only goal of the afternoon at the Bernabeu. There were rumours that both Real Madrid and Barcelona were interested in signing him, but, like had happened with other Portuguese players who had ventured abroad, missing home weighed too much and he decided to return to Portugal.

Benfica hijack Porto deal

As news filtered that Alves would be available, Pedroto came knocking as he planned to sign him for his FC Porto side, who had just claimed their first league trophy in 19 years. The idea of having Alves playing alongside Octávio Machado, Rodolfo, António Oliveira and Fernando Gomes was fascinating, and the personal relationship between manager and player almost made the deal go through, but then Benfica came knocking, and Alves opted to return to the club where he never had the opportunity to establish himself in his teen years.

It was a dream come true for him, but it only lasted a season. Without him, Porto claimed a second league win, and Benfica had a disappointing campaign; Alves was less impactful than many had expected him to be. It was enough, though, for Paris Saint-Germain to take notice, and once again he moved abroad, to France, to replace another Portuguese international icon, Humberto Coelho. Injuries and poor management from the Parisians, who were still years away from becoming a force to be reckoned with, meant his stint lasted only a single season and by 1980 he was back in Portugal for good. Porto were once again on the lure, but with Pedroto now out, it became clear there was only one place to move, and that was Benfica.

Third time lucky at Benfica

Alves’ third stint at the Estádio da Luz was radically different from the previous ones. If he failed to debut as a youth academy graduate and his second spell had been disappointing, his return was finally everything the Eagles supporters expected of the Luvas Pretas. He claimed the league title in his first year, proving to be a decisive player for the Eagles as they beat Sporting and Porto in the title race and claimed their first league win in four years. The connection between Chalana, Shéu and Nené provided some of the best attacking football the club had enjoyed for years.

It was in his third spell at Benfica that Alves at last enjoyed great success at the Estádio da Luz (Image: gloriasdopassado.blogspot.com)

Even though Benfica finished only second to Sporting the following campaign, by 1982/83 they were back at the top of the league, with Alves now used more as a regular sub by the new manager, Sven-Göran Erikson, claiming the League and Cup double for a second time. That was also the campaign where Benfica finally returned to a European final as they beat all opposition until they met Anderlecht in a two-legged showdown. It was the Belgian side that came out on top, though, and that turned out to be Alves’ bitterest defeat in his playing career.

It also brought the curtain down on his Benfica days. He had enjoyed less playing time as the season went by, and to wrap up his days as a footballer, he preferred to move back north and play his final two seasons with Boavista, the club that had turned him into a nationwide star. He had also been left out of the Euro 84 squad, in spite of participating in the qualifying matches, bringing his international career to an end just a few months before the nation’s first international tournament in almost two decades.

Move into management

By 1984 Alves had said enough was enough. He was only 32, but injuries and a sense of disillusionment meant his playing days were over. His relationship with football was not, though. He took the Boavista job initially as caretaker manager, and ended up coaching the Axadrezados for the following two campaigns. It was the beginning of a coaching career that took him from north to south of Portugal and even brief spells abroad with his former club Salamanca and the Swiss side Servette.

During that time, Alves was manager of Estrela da Amadora, who he led to their iconic Portuguese Cup win in 1990 in his first stint, then back to the top flight two years later. Vitória SC, Campomaiorense, Farense, Académica, Leixões and briefly Boavista, in the mid-1990s were also on his CV. He never reached the same heights as a manager as he had enjoyed as a footballer but he nonetheless remained a well-respected figure and he managed mainly first division sides for the better part of the three decades he sat in the dugout.

João Alves led Estrela da Amadora to a historical Portuguese Cup triumph in 1990 (Image: gloriasdopassado.blogspot.com)

One from the forgotten generation

Like with so many players from his generation, such as Artur Jorge, Humberto Coelho, Pavão, Nené, Manuel Fernandes, António Oliveira, Vitor Baptista and Fernando Gomes, João Alves has been largely forgotten with time. The lack of an international tournament with the same success as the previous generation of the sixties, or the following Portugal teams of the eighties, didn’t help. The mutations of Portuguese football, following the drastic shifts in society after the Carnation Revolution, made it a time difficult to explain and analyse.

Still, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t as good as any other attacking midfielder that has worn the national team shirt. He was the Bruno Fernandes or Rui Costa of his day, a complete midfielder with a defining attacking mentality but who also had the ability to read the game and provide answers where everyone else only saw questions. His black gloves became a symbol of finesse, and to this day, if you visit Salamanca and mention Alves, prepare yourself to be greeted with a smile and a never-ending number of stories about a Portuguese who once ruled in Spain.